How to Build a Big Back | The Best Exercises For a Wide Thick Massive Back

How to Build a Big Back

• Overview
• Best Three Moves

Overview

Muscles like the chest, biceps, shoulders, abs and obliques get all the attention and work because they get seen when people face the mirror. But, what about the back! It’s a large muscle group that’s often times overlooked and not given the attention it really needs. We tend to neglect what we cannot see. However, people can see it, and having a massive well-proportioned back in front of their eyes is so impressive that they wish they would build one like your own.

A well-developed back is not only for impressing people though; the functions it can perform are phenomenal and so incredibly important. Also, having a developed back promotes a balanced muscle mass (especially if you focus on chest and arms more) and prevents serious injuries, like the ones related to the spine, neck and shoulders.

Working on your back often requires more work and concentration, but the joy you get either right after workout or in the long run is absolutely worth it. For faster and more reliable results, compound movements and mind-muscle connection are the masters here.

In the next section, I will mention the best exercises for a massive back with sets and reps, including the variations that could add on a lot of benefits and take your workout to the next level.

Best Three Moves

Compound movements involve any exercise that requires you to use more than one joint. Here are some of the best exercises that are incredible builders for the width and thickness of the back.

1. Deadlift: Although the deadlift is a total body exercise with more focus on the posterior chain, a great deal of back activation is stimulated with it. The back muscles highly involved with the deadlift are the deep muscles which are responsible for keeping that upright tall posture, and that is the first thing you want to do if you ask me; you can’t put on mass on a structure unsuitable for carrying weight, because then it will only slouch even further. The deadlift also work hugely on your traps, especially the upper portion, giving them a mountain like shape if you keep consistent with the exercise.

Therefore, whether you are a beginner or intermediate lifter, incorporate some heavy deadlift in your workout routine. But don’t get me wrong here, I mean heavy to your own capacity not a back breaker heavy. In your top sets, choose a weight that you can perform a single with, but as you perform your first sets, try to keep your rep range within eight reps. If you do it with other back exercises on a back day, try leaving it to the end; your back muscles will be so warmed up by them and you will definitely notice a huge difference doing only 4 sets. However, you can have a full deadlift session doing as many sets as you possibly can, but this one is done as a total body workout not just for the back.

2. Rows: Rows are great width and thickness builders, with more focus on thickness. With a barbell, you either do regular bent over rows (Overhand grip), or Yates rows (Underhand grip). You can target different muscles with these two depending on how you position your torso. If your torso is far more bent forward (Torso almost parallel to the floor) your focus is on the lats and mid back. However, if you keep your torso a little bit elevated than the first instance (Which can be done more properly with the Yates rows) the focus shifts to the upper back and middle traps.

Do somewhere between 8 and 12 reps completing 3–4 sets. Nonetheless, how you perform the exercise is what matters the most. Drive the bar with your elbows, not your hands; remember! You are rowing, not curling! Another great tip that enables you get the most of the exercise is to envision yourself, with every single rep, that you are holding a pencil between your shoulder blades, squeezing as much as you possibly can.

Now, this means you have to do controlled reps with a little pause at the top of each rep. but, this is basically for newbies in order to master the form first, because if you don’t and skip this important step, you might wind up hurting your lower back. For more advanced individuals, however, cheat reps with heavy weights are alright because they master the technique and have the necessary core strength and stability to do that.

As for dumbbell or cable rows, there is an increase range of motion for your elbows can travel further back behind you, allowing you to experience a harder squeeze, and also, with the possibility to perform these unilaterally, you can twist your torso to either increase the stretch at the bottom or shorten the muscle to the maximum at the top (Squeeze). Tucking your elbows to your torso gives you more lats activation, with the possibility to favor the upper or lower lats. Bending your arms at 90 degrees and rowing towards the area just below your chest is going to hit the upper lats more. However, having your arms angled at about 120 degrees and rowing to your hips targets the lower lats.

3. Pulls: Pull exercises should be always there in your back routine. This type of exercise is mainly performed for the lats width. All kinds of pulls do that; the pull up (and chin up), the lat pull down and the pull over. With regard to the pull ups, they can be hard for beginners especially technique wise. The first thing you should keep in mind is to pull with your laps, not with your biceps. To achieve just that, you need to first activate your back by retracting your scapula (Bring your shoulders back and downward) before each rep. The second problem is with handling your body weight; Arnold Schwarzenegger says that once you can perform eight reps at the lat pull down machine with your body weight, then you can start doing pull ups. However, there are ways to assist yourself do the pull ups even as a newbie; you can use resistance bands or a pull up machine.

There is a misconception about the mechanism of the lat pull down exercise. You see many people perform this exercise with a wide grip with the idea that the wider the grip is the wider the lats are going to be. In fact, this is way far from reality; a grip slightly wider than shoulders targets the tares major (Not even the lats) which is a muscle that sits just above the lats. Working this muscle isn’t a bad thing to do; actually you must be working it. Yet, keeping the same grip width for all your workouts thinking you are working on the lats width is bad, because your lats are lacking a lot of benefit that can be directed to them just by a slight change of hand positioning. In addition, a grip that is at each end of the bar (Which is too wide) will only give you shoulder injuries in the long run.

To improve lat activation with the lat pull down, have a shoulder width grip or slightly narrower if you want to target the lower lats. Keep your elbows tucked to your sides at the bottom of the movement. An underhand grip gives you a better stretch, but don’t fall into the mistake of using too much biceps as it easy with this variation. You will know that the focus shifted from your lats to your traps and biceps when your back starts hinging as you pull. This is a sign that you are using more weight than your lats can handle. In this case, drop the weight, leave the ego out and get bigger lats which can be achieved only by proper stretch and proper squeeze (Your shoulder blades should be back and down at the squeeze phase)

The pull over is also a great exercise choice for the lats that can be done either with a dumbbell (Laying) or cable (Standing or seated). Leave this exercise at the end of a back workout to give those lats a nice stretch. With any pull exercise, your rep rage should be somehow high, between 10 and 15 reps.